The objective of this study is to delineate the ways men and women in dual work families wish to divide or share commitments to work and parenting and how, in the practical sense, they do. I am asking: what are the sex role ideals? what are the realities? How do couples working within large organizations pattern their work-family arrangements? What sorts of emotional strains characterize each sort of fit or misfit between ideal and reality? And how do the strains common to these families issue in different patterns of emotional stress? I am interviewing in-depth 100 couples in which both parents work at least 35 hours a week and have at least one pre-school child. For each type of dual work family observed, I will explore the gap between sex role ideal and reality as it bears on three core issues: (1) the work crunch: given that time and preoccupation at work compete with family time, what limits can an individual place on work commitments and how do they do so? (2) the parenting crunch: what kind of family life does a person aspire to? what image of the "good father" or "good mother" does each parent have? how does each parent feel about their parenting and its effect upon the child? (3) the marital crunch: what is each individual's notion of a "good marriage"? what mix of work and family life does this imply? how does their own marriage measure up?